Goodbye to this House: Next up, Homestead

After laboring over every square inch of this house, we are finally ready to list! It feels surreal saying goodbye to this house. Part of me thought it might never happen. But here we are, bravely moving into the next phase of our journey. Next up, homestead!

Goodbye to this House

We spent one more week wrapping up the bathroom project. The whole family came down with the worst cold we’ve ever had which included a strange version of pink eye that left as quickly as it came on. But somehow we managed to scrub down every wall, retouch every bit of paint, and leave our old home remarkably better than we found it. It doesn’t feel like we are saying goodbye to this house yet, because we still have to move everything out after it sells. But it definitely feels like the hardest chapter is ending.

Always moving forward

A few people have asked me, now that you’ve gotten your house just the way you want it…Aren’t you tempted to stay? Yes, and no. It is HARD to leave my beautiful shiplap bathroom and my gorgeous butcher block countertops. My husband made them for me with his own two hands! And they are warm, and lovely, and inviting. But life is always moving forward. And just like we made this home beautiful, I am hopeful that we’ll do the same with the next one.

We have a family rule that when we go somewhere- whether for a temporary visit or a permanent stay, we always want to leave it better than we found it. So with this old house, we get to live with the satisfaction that we loved her well. There’s not really a better way to goodbye, right?

leaving ourselves

I don’t know if it’s because we have lived there for nearly eight years, or because Brandon and I literally redesigned and remodeled nearly every inch of it ourselves, but it does feel like we are leaving our mark on this old home. It’s a strange bittersweet as we eagerly anticipate our future, while grieving the past. But I keep reminding myself that we DO get to take the memories with us- and there are SO many. We experienced so many birthdays, babies brought home from the hospital, Christmas mornings, Friday night fun nights, slow summer days outside in the garden, and cozy winter nights reading aloud in front of the fire.